Thursday, December 31, 2009

My husband and I met on January 1, 2000. After dating for that year (more or less) he few up to Philadelphia (where my parents lived at the time) to spend New Year's Eve.

He told me he had something special for me and when we went out for dinner that night, he pulled out a box of stationary.

His idea was to write letters to each other about our thoughts on the current year and predictions for the upcoming year. After we wrote the letters, we would seal them up and open them the following New Year's Eve.

This is the letter he wrote me that night. Among other romantic words, he writes of how he's going to propose in the near future and that he hopes we'd be married that summer.

Our letter writing has become a tradition that we look forward to each year. In the past nine years the pile has grown and it's amazing to re-read the letters remembering what we thought would happen and recall what actually happened. One of the most memorable letters would be the letters we opened in 2008. In our letters written on December 31, 2007 we both talk about the joy Melody has brought our family and how fulfilled we feel as a family of four. However, by the time those letters were read, Charlie was already 3 months old!

I have spent some time over the past few days reflecting on this year with my husband and thinking about the kind of wife I want to be for him in 2010. While past letters have predicted many different things, there is one thought that is repeated over and over: how much we love each other and love being married. That is one thing I don't predict to change!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

My True Story Tuesday this week is by request of Rachel, the True Story Tuesday genius over at Once Upon A Miracle.

The scene is one evening about 9:00, Alex and I are comfortably sitting on the couch watching TV engaged in interesting discussion.

Though our children have been asleep for well over an hour, we hear Jack's door open. We thinking nothing of it and just assume that he will use the restroom like he does most nights and then head right back to his room.

Now, the kids' bathroom is not too far from the stairs and if the door is open, it's relatively easy to hear what's going on in there. Sure enough, a few seconds later, we hear the unmistakable sound of, um, as Alex would say, "someone taking a leak."

Only it sounds loud. Really loud. Way too loud to be in the bathroom.

So, I walk into the hallway to peer up the stairs and see what's going on.

And I almost get peed on.

In his sleepy daze, Jack bypassed the bathroom completely and walked right over to the staircase. I'm assuming now, he was thinking about coming downstairs and telling us he had to go, but the urge got the better of him. He simply dropped his pants right there and took aim between the balusters. I have to tell you, it's quite shocking to walk over to the stairs and almost get hit in the face by a stream of pee.

By the time I pulled myself together enough to exclaim, "Jack!" he had already finished. He pulled his britches right up and headed right back to bed. Alex was totally cracking up. I have to admit I did giggle a little bit, but not as hard as Alex did. After all, I was the one that had to clean it up!

Since several of you expressed disappointment that I didn't post all the videos, here's the link to youtube to watch them there. (Yes, I'm aware I can post youtube video to my blog, but for some reason I couldn't figure it out. I finally gave up after I had one of those I-going-to-throw-this-computer-out-the-window moments.)

Thursday, December 10, 2009

One of our Thanksgiving traditions is taking a photo for our annual Christmas card.

The picture on the card (or pictures if it's one of those years where getting my children to all look at the camera at the same time with pleasant if not smiling expressions on their faces is just not going to happen forcing me to use individual, albeit adorable, photographs) always looks wonderful.

But, for every amazing photo we get, there are the ones that just don't make it.

So, I give you the anti-Christmas card photos.

One rule of a good Christmas card photo is that the subjects have to be able to stand still.

Sadly, my boys haven't acquired that skill yet.

Then, of course, there's the traditional someone-looks-drunk-photo. This time it was Melody. Those candy canes go straight to their heads, you know.

Looking at the camera is also another strong Christmas card photo characteristic.

Not happening here

and happening a little too much here.

Then there's the picture where one person is looking but the other two aren't.

Then one looks (kind of) and one closes his eyes and one decides to just leave.

And then this. This is the "I'm done" shot. Which, incidentally, reminds me of this. *Shudder*

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

You've probably noticed that we have a fake tree. Unless of course, you're used to seeing live trees perfectly triangularly shaped.

We haven't always had a fake tree. Up until Christmas 2006 we had always had a real, live tree.

Christmas 2006 was our first Christmas we stayed at home. Jack was 2 and I was almost 9 months pregnant with Melody.

A few weeks before Christmas we went over to Webb and Lindsey's house for a little Christmas cheer. When we arrived, Lindsey was frantically sweeping the floor. She insisted that she had swept several times that day but that she kept seeing stuff all over the floor. Webb and Alex go in for a closer look and discover (be prepared to be freaked out!)bugs crawling all. over. the. tree.

After completely freaking out (ok, only Lindsey and I freaked out) we quickly un-decorated the tree and disposed of it outside.

When Alex and I got home, we immediately inspected our tree (since we got it at the same place as they did). Fortunately, we were bug free. However, I just couldn't let it go and continually checked it over the next few days. And lo and behold, a few days later (be prepared to freak out again)bugs on my tree!

We un-decorated our tree and took it outside. We went back to the place where we bought it and they let us pick out another tree. After all we had to have a tree on Christmas! After careful inspection, we deemed it bug free and brought it home.

A few days later, on December 23, Jack and I were wrapping a few more gifts and placing them under the tree when I noticed some tiny specks on the floor. Yep, bugs again. (Cue more freaking out.)

I began un-decorating the tree and called one of Alex's buddies to help me drag it outside.

Remember at the beginning of this story when I mentioned that I was almost 9 months pregnant with Melody? Well, I tend to be a little on the dramatic hormonal side all the time when I'm pregnant. So, pregnancy hormones plus having two bug infested trees really pushed me over the edge.

By the time Marc got over here, I had already managed to drag the buggy tree outside. I then lopped off the top, (which was crawling, crawling with bugs by the way) and put it in a garbage bag and headed over to the place we got the tree. When I arrived I asked to see the manager. Looking back, I kind of feel bad for the poor guy. He was this nice guy and I don't think he knew what hit him when my hormones attacked him. I gave him the garbage bag and told every. single. detail. of the two bug infested trees. Including freaking out about how bugs were currently crawling over my very favorite angel tree topper (which was in the bag).

After I was finished he looked at me and asked me what I wanted him to do. My answer was simple and straight forward, "Get all the bugs off my tree topper and let me pick out an artificial tree and give it to me for free."

He didn't hesitate even a second before saying, "Deal." I think he was worried I might go into labor if I got any more worked up!

He took the bag from me and went to work on the tree topper while I walked back to where their artificial trees were. There were slim pickings since it was practically Christmas, however there was one relatively decent, pre-lit tree that I snagged. They loaded it into my car and off we went. My hormones were still raging and I some how managed to get this extremely heavy tree out of the car and up into the house and then I practically had the whole thing up and decorated by the time Alex got home from work.

Here we are in front of our fake, but more importantly, bug-free tree!

We have used the artificial tree for a number of reasons every year since. Convenience is certainly one of those reasons and I'm also a little nervous about having another bug infested tree. However, I think that next year we'll give the real thing another try. After all, finding the perfect tree is all part of the Christmas experience!